Russia Legalizes Crypto Mining and Brings an Experimental Regime

Russia’s lower house of the Federal Assembly, known as the State Duma, has passed two crypto-related laws on Tuesday, a Russia based policy expert told CoinDesk and Ria Novosti, Russia’s state-owned domestic news agency reported.

The first law fully legalizes cryptocurrency mining in Russia from Nov. 1, 2024. Legal entities and individual entrepreneurs registered with the Ministry of Digital Development can engage in mining, while those who are not registered can only operate mining rigs if they do not exceed energy consumption limits, Ria Novosti reported.

Oversight over mining activities will be spread between different institutions with the Bank of Russia seemingly having overriding powers.

The cabinet of ministers will independently establish a scope of requirements for activities of the mining infrastructure operators. Other requirements, including for mining pool participants, will be approved by the Russian government in agreement with the Bank of Russia, the report said.

Miners will also need to provide information to the government-authorized body about the digital currency obtained as a result of mining.

The authorized body and the central bank will have the right to introduce a ban or restriction on transactions with digital currency to maintain Russia’s monetary stability.

This law also brings into effect a ban on advertising cryptocurrencies and offering them to an unlimited number of people.

The second law, which comes into effect on Sept. 1, 2024, is a special experimental regime which hands the Bank of Russia powers to allow authorized companies to conduct cross-border settlements and exchange trading in digital currency.

Companies, exchanges and crypto entities will need to apply to the central bank to become part of this experimental regime, said Anti Danilevski, founder and CEO of Kick Ecosystem.

“The Bank of Russia will be able to conduct not one, but three experiments from September 1 of this year: on the use of cryptocurrency for settlements in foreign trade, on the conduct of exchange trading in cryptocurrency, and on the creation of an electronic platform for operations with cryptocurrency based on the NPS,” a separate Ria Novosti report said.

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